Why you need to know about the TTP

Sunday, February 02, 2014

If you liked NAFTA you are going to love TTP. Not. Both of these trade deals are good for big corporations and bad, bad, bad for everyday Americans. You need to speak up now! I have contacted both my senators and my representative to tell them not to pass this. The following is part of two different emails I have received. I encourage you to find out more on your own and speak up.

Amazing news: we have a serious chance to beat the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and stop the biggest corporate power grab in a decade.
Just this week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he opposes the fast track authority the Obama administration wants to negotiate the deal with limited Congressional oversight. This is great news: the TPP is being called a free trade agreement, but it's really a corporate wish-list attacking everything from environmental and labor rights protections to affordable medicines to internet freedoms.
But we can't declare victory yet: the House of Representatives is the key battle, where Republican leaders are still trying to ram the deal through. More and more representatives are distancing themselves from the TPP because they're hearing from their constituents, so we need to to keep up the pressure. Even if you've already made a call, please take a few moments to call your representative and say why you oppose fast track and the TPP.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is being decided without input from the citizens of the countries affected. You need to speak up to your representatives in Washington to make sure that the people will not be sold out to international corporations. If passed as it is proposed it will give these multi national corporations power over our congress and over many areas of that will have negative consequences on our lives.

For the first time, actual presidents and prime ministers of 12 powerful countries are meeting behind closed doors to seal an extreme internet censorship plan called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
We know from leaked drafts that the TPP will make the internet more expensive, less accessible, and subject to censorship. Experts say, "kids could be sent to jail for downloading" and whole families could be kicked off the internet.
Will political leaders feel more pressure from industry lobbyists or from us? Join with RootsAction and OpenMedia in sending decision-makers a powerful message now before it's too late.
Here are our reasonable requests of elected officials:
Please say no to internet censorship.
Protect the right of everyone to access the internet in their daily lives.
Do not force internet service providers (ISPs) to act as "internet police," monitoring our use, censoring content, and removing whole websites.
Preserve the democratic rights of sovereign countries to draft their own internet laws.
Will you join with us now in sending this crucial message?
Thus far, our movement has stopped TPP negotiators from finalizing the agreement but now powerful interests are pressuring politicians to ram through their internet censorship plan.
Thousands of people and over 30 major organizations from across the Trans-Pacific region, including RootsAction and OpenMedia, are working together to keep the internet open. High ranking politicians from several countries are beginning to ask questions.
We know that when citizens speak out, decision makers take notice. Please forward this email widely to like-minded friends.
-- The RootsAction.org team
P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, Frances Fox Piven, and many others.
www.RootsAction.org